Software applications, such as virtual machines (VMs), may be executed by a group, or “cluster,” of host computing devices. Each VM creates an abstraction of physical computing resources, such as a processor and memory, of the host executing the VM and executes a “guest” operating system, which, in turn, executes one or more software applications. The abstracted resources may be functionally indistinguishable from the underlying physical resources to the guest operating system and software applications.
At least some host computing devices are grouped together in one or more datacenters within a common site. The datacenters may be at least partially virtualized so that computing devices and other resources may be abstracted and accessible to users as VMs. Virtualization of datacenters facilitates the migration and recovery of applications and data between computing devices and datacenters. For example, because the VMs are represented as one or more files, the VMs can be replicated onto remote storage and can be migrated to a backup site as desired.
However, at least some known datacenters may not provide complete recovery solutions for enterprise applications and/or for other components of the datacenter. Enterprise applications are often complex and may include many components residing on different VMs. Some VMs may have specific configurations required to execute them in a preferable manner. Moreover, some groups of VMs have a specific startup order, and initiating, or “powering on,” the VMs in the wrong order can result in execution failure. If a failure occurs at a first, or primary datacenter and the VMs are recovered to a second, or recovery datacenter, the configuration settings for the VMs typically must be set up manually. In addition, components and configuration settings of the primary datacenter itself may not be stored in a recovery datacenter to enable the primary datacenter components and settings to be restored. For example, the primary datacenter may include one or more virtual datacenters instantiated therein and/or may include one or more virtual networks that may not be stored and recovered at the recovery datacenter.